Children can “Makey Makey” Anything…

Creativity, hands-on learning, and cutting-edge technology; that’s what inspires me as a physician, educator, and mom. I have recently been extolling the benefits of cardboard for creativity, but I do also love new applications of technology for creativity.

I just wanted to share with you our new discovery, this really cool new toy called Makey Makey. If you go to the website you will get the full description, but in short, it’s a circuit board that you plug into your computer and acts like a keyboard. You attach any conductive object using wires to the different controls on the board and the object becomes your controller! Here is B playing Doe a Deer using of all things, bananas!

At this moment, B and I are novices, but there are so many more creative uses for Makey Makey that you can learn about here in this really entertaining talk by Jay Silver . With creative technology, there really are no limits.

What might you get your kids to design using this really cool technology tool?

Joyce Lee, MD, MPH, is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan. She is a pediatric diabetes specialist (Pediatric Endocrinologist) who works with children and families at Mott Children’s Hospital, and she is a clinical researcher whose work focuses on childhood obesity, diabetes, and growth and pubertal development.

Note: This Perspectives Blog post is written by a guest blogger of DrGreene.com. The opinions expressed on this post do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Dr. Greene or DrGreene.com, and as such we are not responsible for the accuracy of the information supplied. View the license for this post.